Yes. Totally agree. This change was definitely an odd decision to make, just from a logic perspective.
1 Like
Good for you to finally join the rest of the civilized Star Wars loving world! 
I’ll add a little detail I’ve mentioned before on this forum. When you’re watching Return of the Jedi, realize that the Ewoks have killed and probably eaten people before (which is what they were planning to do again). This is why they had clothes for Leia to wear. Cute and cuddly? I think not!
5 Likes
I don’t think you need to re watch it.
Sounds like you saw the original sequence.
I am totally with everyone on the Han shot first thing, but devils advocate for a moment on the force ghost issue…
Obi Wan said in RotJ that from a certain perspective what he told Luke about his father was true (that Vader killed Anikan), so using that same logic, the Jedi Knight Anikan Skywalker would come back as a force ghost and look the same as when he “died”.
I hope I didn’t need to put a spoiler alert on there for @OBNurseNH
2 Likes
I’ve watched all the movies and I have no idea what most of you are taking about.
@ryan1 I 
MCU but GOTG are harder for me to watch. The DLR ride is the best though.
2 Likes
Trouble with this logic is that there was still good in him. And Luke was able to save Anakin. Meaning, Anakin had never died, as Obi-Wan had presumed…
2 Likes
The ghost could be the last time he was a Jedi though regardless of dying or not dying though I think.
2 Likes
Keeping this in spoiler mode…
In the prequels, Qui-Gon Jin was taught how to live beyond the grave from his master (who presumably taught Obi-Wan), and Palpatine also was teaching Anakin the same thing as a Sith. Which means the ability to live on was not something related to Jedis specifically, but something related to the use of the Force. In either case, in the final moments that Darth was alive, he was presumably back to being Anakin. Not sure how he would have not been a Jedi at that point again?
3 Likes
Yes, this really bothered me and didn’t make any sense.
David Prowse is his name and he just died last year.
2 Likes
Personally, I’d have thought the Force would’ve embraced Anakin’s final redemption and ghosted him at that age.
Maybe they thought the actors looked too dissimilar to pass for an older Hayden?
3 Likes
Lucasfilm has messed with this scene several times in subsequent releases. (I think I even remember seeing Lucas wearing a “Han Shot First” shirt on set of the prequels once.) For example, on the Disney+ version, Greedo now famously says, “Macklunkey!” as he dies. I’ll have to rewatch to see who shoots first. I think they compromised and made both shoot at the same time.
Blasphemy! This is my favorite alteration. I wouldn’t mind if Obi-Wan was Ewan McGregor, but I love Alec Guinness more than I care about Sebastian Shaw, who was in RotJ for like 12 seconds.
He was only the suited Vader, not the face.
2 Likes
Also wanted to add, the one thing I’d change about this alteration would be for Lucas to have told Hayden what they were filming. It was kept a secret so it would be a surprise even to him. As a result, he’s giving kind of a creepy smile. Lol But i adore Hayden so it gets a pass.
2 Likes
OK, OK
Maybe the Force allows the person to manifest as they see fit.
Of those three Jedi, only Anakin would take back his senior years and wanted Luke to see him as he was when he too had hope etc.
1 Like
Really? I find his acting horrid. Not just in the prequels. I just think he is a bad actor all around. His performance in the prequels was particularly bad…although I blame most of that on Lucas, who can’t seem to write decent dialogue whatsoever in the prequels.
5 Likes
That’s the only change I’ve noticed. Clearly I’m not very observant. I had no idea that the originals were mucked (magiked) with so much! Like @OBNurseNH, I was just a kid when they were first released in the theaters and didn’t really have much interest in them until I had kids and Ep’s 1-3 were released.
Well that would make sense but I think George Lucas was just enjoying himself too much at the expense of reasoning. I don’t think it had anything to do with what the actors looked like @GreyingMouser.
1 Like
There are about 5 lines of dialogue that I cringe at. But the rest makes up for it. And I do “blame” Lucas for that, but it doesn’t bother me too much. How could I do anything other than defend the man who gave me the opportunity for more happiness and imagination than any other, besides perhaps Walt Disney himself?
1 Like
Sadly, I think you’re right.
I think it was just a case of “oooh look at what I can do!” and nobody was going to challenge him on it.
1 Like
Ooof, I didn’t know Prowse wasn’t the face too. I hope my fangirl card isn’t revoked! 
2 Likes
There is some truth to that, EXCEPT…when Lucas decided to change his own backstory in order to make telling the prequels easier.
In ROTJ, we learn from Leia that she remembers her mother, but barely, and mostly as being sad. Luke had no memory of his mother. This means that Leia had to have spent at least SOME time with Padme before she died.
But when Lucas made the prequels, the only one of the twins who actually got to see Padme, even for a moment, was Luke…and Leia never saw her at all before she died…not to mention she was then taken away entirely immediately. I see not justification in how he can change something so fundamental to the story without a care.
4 Likes